Day: September 12, 2022

The UK-based REDRESS organisation has urged “a future legitimate and democratically elected Sudanese government” to reform its laws to curtail the use of torture in custodial settings and prohibit the use of information extracted by torture in trials.

In general, “allegations raised by accused persons that they were forced to confess have historically been systematically ignored by judges,” REDRESS said in a briefing last Monday.

Defence lawyers say that judges routinely tell them the only way to address the issue of “torture evidence” and/or the act of torture itself is to initiate separate proceedings against an alleged perpetrator(s), and not in the case against the defendant.

“As a party to the UN Convention against Torture since August 2021, Sudan must prohibit, prevent, punish, and provide reparations for torture and other ill-treatment,” the NGO stated. “Sudan must ensure that evidence elicited through torture or other ill-treatment is excluded from legal proceedings. Despite this, Sudanese authorities continue to rely routinely on evidence obtained through torture and other ill-treatment in criminal and other proceedings.”

In the briefing, REDRESS refers to the case of 17-year-old Mohamad Adam (aka Tupac) who was detained from a hospital in eastern Khartoum in mid-January, after sustaining injuries in a demonstration, on charges of stabbing a police brigadier to death during the protest. Fellow protesters Mohamed El Fateh, Ahmed El Fateh, and Musab El Sherif were also detained in relation with the killing.

Adam’s defence lawyers said that he and the other defendants were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment, while held in incommunicado detention by security forces, and that their confessions were extracted by torture.

In the first session of the trial, on 29 May, the defence lawyers in the case requested a medical examination to prove the issue of torture. This time however, the presiding judge granted the defence team’s request, a decision subsequently upheld by Sudan’s High Court.

Another case is the one concerning nine members (including minors) of the resistance committee of the Burri El Lamab neighbourhood in Khartoum, who were accused of killing a paramilitary of the Rapid Support Forces during the June 3 massacre of 2019, lawyers alleged that confessions were extracted through torture.

Though the defendants were acquitted on other grounds after proceedings in October 2020, the judge declined to address the allegations of torture through the proceedings and in his judgment.

According to REDRESS, these cases “are consistent with a long history of the use of torture for the purpose of extracting confessions by Sudan’s security forces, and highlight the significant work needed in Sudan to ensure the absolute prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment”.

The NGO therefore recommends “a future legitimate and democratically elected Sudanese government” to amend the Criminal Law Act 1991 and Criminal Procedure Act 1991.

The African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) reported on Saturday that a young human rights defender was arrested, tortured, and charged with defamation over a Facebook post in Central Darfur last week. He was reportedly held in Zalengei, and tortured and racially berated by police officers before being released on bail.

A Sudanese psychiatrist told Radio Dabanga in end June that the number of victims of maltreatment and torture by the authorities is rapidly increasing in the country.

At the end of his second visit to Sudan in June, the UN Expert on Human Rights in Sudan, Adama Dieng, expressed his deep concern at the human rights situation in the county. On September 2, the UN Secretary-General said in his report on the situation in Sudan between 6 May to 20 August 2022 that the human rights situation continues to deteriorate.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Nine embassies in Sudan, along with the AU-IGAD-UNITAMS Trilateral Mechanism and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), have welcomed the Sudanese Bar Association’s (SBA) publication of a draft transitional constitution framework document for Sudan.

This support follows the presentation of the document to the drafting committee of a number of pro-democratic political forces, who proposed some amendments, and approved the final version last week.

The Embassies of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States are taking the document as a “serious and encouraging initiative,” with the potential to “achieve a broadly acceptable and inclusive civilian-led government that can put Sudan on a path to democracy and elections.”

In the statement, published yesterday, a great deal of emphasis was put on the document having a wide base of popular support and a focus on inclusivity: “We commend the SBA initiative’s inclusion of a broad spectrum of Sudanese stakeholders and careful expert technical review, and we are encouraged by the initial signs of support from diverse Sudanese actors since the release of the SBA document.”

However, the statement also noted that more work is needed to ensure inclusivity and that “no single actor, group, or coalition should have a monopoly on the political process,” noting that especially Sudan’s military must constructively engage in a political process. 

Trilateral Mechanism

The Embassies also reiterated their firm support for the AU-IGAD-UNITAMS Trilateral Mechanism “to help bridge differences among parties and initiatives and to facilitate a restoration of a civilian-led transition to democracy.”

The Trilateral Mechanism met the SBA’s Steering Committee on Saturday, to review the draft proposal. In a statement after the meeting, the coalition welcomed the SBA’s “continued efforts to include a vast array of civilian political parties and forces” in the initiative.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga last week, Volker Perthes, the UN Special Representative for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), warned of dire consequences “if all do not cooperate to save the country”.

DUP support

The mainstream DUP, the oldest party in the country, with supporters in particular in eastern Sudan, also expressed their support of the document in a press statement on Saturday.

DUP spokesperson Omar Khalafallah stated that the DUP signed “the project of the 2022 transitional Constitution” prepared by the SBA and Sudanese legal experts. The party thanked them for organising the workshop on the constitutional document “within the framework of the national initiative to solve the Sudanese crisis, launched by [the party’s president] Judge Mohamed Osman El Mirghani” to realise “a democratic transition” in Sudan.

Resistance committees

Nine coordination teams of resistance committees in Greater Khartoum said that there is a necessity for tight cooperation between them and other democratic forces, in order to reverse the October 2021 military coup and start building a democratic Sudan in a joint statement last week. The step was widely welcomed by 22 professional associations, including the SBA.

The coordinating teams of the resistance committees in southern Khartoum and those of El Jereif East Khartoum however, denounced the initiative. They stated that the move nullified the Charter for the Establishment of the People’s Authority (CEPA), issued by the Khartoum Resistance Committees in February.

Source: Radio Dabanga

In a meeting with the US Ambassador John Godfrey, residents of Zamzam camp for the displaced near El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, requested international protection from continuous violations and attacks.

Godfrey met with a number of camp leaders on Sunday, where he reaffirmed that the US “will continue to support all efforts to bring lasting peace to the region.”

One of the camp leaders told Radio Dabanga that the displaced handed the new ambassador a note during the meeting. 

Omda Jamal Abdelkarim told Godfrey that people lack security, as they are routinely subject to fatal attacks and armed robberies. The camp leader said that insecurity is as well caused by disputes between shepherds and farmers. He further pointed to the deterioration of health and education services.

Fatima Ibrahim, the women’s representative in the camp, said that women face many threats such as rape and physical assault.

She told him that there are cases of rape, but no reports have been opened for them since the exit of UNAMID until now, due to the laws set by the government stipulating the lodging of an official complaint a day after the incident, which leads to the escape of the offender. She also accused the police of manipulating the reports, and turning for instance a report of rape into a report of adultery.

The ambassador affirmed that all the demands of the displaced are legitimate and that the embassy is sitting with the federal government to solve all the issues of the displaced, deploring the attacks against people in the camp. He also noted that the government in Khartoum and the North Darfur state government responsible for protecting civilians and maintaining security, indicating that the embassy is working in cooperation with the authorities in training the joint Sudanese peacekeeping force in the context of the Juba Peace Agreement.

Sit-in lifted

A number of displaced people have expressed their dissatisfaction on lifting the Zamzam sit-in last Wednesday without achieving all of the main demands, such as the return of the many displaced who have been abducted or have gone missing.

In a memorandum earlier submitted to the North Darfur government, they demanded the restoration of the Rule of Law and the arrest of the armed robbers in the area, the deployment of joint forces to protect the displaced and secure the agricultural season, the implementation of all provisions of the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement regarding displaced people and refugees, in addition to the improvement of basic services in the camp.

North Darfur governor

The US Ambassador also met with the state’s governor, Nimir Abdelrahman, in El Fasher on Saturday to discuss the general security and humanitarian situation in the state, in addition to the need to take the necessary measures to implement the Juba Peace Agreement.

The US embassy in Khartoum reported in a statement that Godfrey was briefed on the challenges facing the state, including those related to education, protection of civilians, and support for the large number of displaced people who lost their homes due to heavy rains.

It is noteworthy that the US ambassador extended his visit to North Darfur for a third day.

Source: Radio Dabanga

In a report by The Guardian newspaper last week, Zainab Mohamed Salih interviewed families demanding DNA tests to identify relatives who are missing after three years of political unrest in Sudan.

The families wish to find out if their relatives are among more than 3,000 unclaimed bodies in the country’s mortuaries. They are demanding that the government does DNA tests of the bodies before it takes any further steps.

Two weeks ago, the Sudanese Senior Public Prosecutor announced plans to dig mass graves for the unidentified bodies in mortuaries without recording forensic details. The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors denounced the decision, calling the move a “dangerous deviation from the protocols.”

Tayeb El Abbas, a lawyer and the head of the missing persons investigation committee set up by the transitional government in 2019, told The Guardian that if the government were to undertake DNA testing, “it will be for the first time in Sudan that they will be burying every missing person in a separate grave… we are hoping that if this identification process uses the right procedure we will be able to know [how they died].”

Sumia Osman’s 24-year-old son has been missing since June 3, 2019, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out a brutal attack on the large sit-in in front of the army command in central Khartoum, whereby more than 127 people were killed.

“They [the government] left the bodies [to decompose] to bury the truth. They deliberately did it,” she told The Guardian. “We are so depressed,” she said, adding that she would “never give up looking for the truth.”

“The government left the bodies to decompose to bury the truth. They deliberately did it.”

– Sumia Osman, mother of missing person

Iman Musa, whose brother, El Mukashfi Musa, 28, is missing, said: “We have reached a point where we think there is no justice on this planet.”

In their statement, the Doctors Committee said that “the revolution, since the start in December 2018, has continuously witnessed attempts to obscure justice, and protect the perpetrators of violence and extrajudicial killings.” It demands that “in order to preserve the rights of the unidentified dead to dignity and justice, a number of measures and procedures must be taken”.

‘Missing’

During protest actions and demonstrations, but also during house searches, Sudanese activists and protesters against the regime of Omar Al Bashir or the military junta, are often held and taken to unknown places. Many were later found by relatives or lawyers in detention cells, others had to be reported missing.

In August 2019, Radio Dabanga reported that more than 100 Sudanese were still missing after what became known as the June 3 Massacre. At least 40 bodies were found in the Nile following the attack. Gusei Hemeto was identified using DNA testing, after his body was found in the Nile tied to a block of concrete three days after the break-up of the sit-in.

Two months later, the CCSD accused several hospital mortuaries of providing misleading information to the families of missing protestors. Staff at the hospitals reportedly denied that bodies were present at the morgues while in fact they were.

Investigation committee

During the civilian-led transitional government headed by PM Abdallah Hamdok, the Senior Public Prosecutor set up a Missing Persons Investigation Committee in late 2020, to investigate people missing since the start of the 2018 December Revolution, following the discovery of a mass grave in Khartoum. It was said at the time that the mass grave may contained bodies of some of the people who were considered as missing following the June 3 Massacre.  

The investigation committee was forced to suspend its activities following the October 25 military coup. Nabil Adib, head of the independent investigation committee, explained on May 20 that it was impossible for foreign teams to examine the evidence without an independent civilian government.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The Greater Equatoria regional conference for traditional authorities concluded last week with calls to empower traditional leaders for the promotion of peace and unity in their communities. 

The two-day UNMISS-organized regional conference, under the theme  ‘Empowering local peace infrastructure to address local disputes and resolve communal conflict’ concluded last week.  

More than 50 traditional leaders from Central, Eastern, and Western Equatoria states deliberated on resolutions and recommendations to be presented at the national traditional authorities conference for further deliberations. 

Eastern Equatoria’s state minister of local government and law enforcement agencies Peter Lokeng Lotone said his government will do all it can to maintain peace at local levels through collaboration with community leaders.

While addressing the chiefs, Lokeng said: “The contributions you have brought out here have to be reflected in a big conference in Juba and that will bring a tool for South Sudan to work with it to bring peace.”

The minister of local government in Central Equatoria Moro Isaac Jenesio warned chiefs against working with politicians but instead always focus on the good of the community through speaking the truth and executive laws. 

“The chiefs are not disciples of any political individual, the chiefs are servants of the community and they must always speak the truth interpret the customs and the traditions execute them the way they are. Chiefs don’t accept manipulation from politicians,” he pleaded with the chiefs. 

Chief Mborimba Renzi Tomburo representing his colleagues from Western Equatoria State said the conference has opened their eyes to issues hindering performance. 

“We call upon our government to put into consideration the voice of the voiceless people through the traditional leaders,” he said. “South Sudan has got so many laws but the main problem is implementation. Without implementation, this conference will not achieve anything. Therefore it is our sole responsibility as the custodians of peace at the grassroots to make sure that once the law is enacted it should be given to the grassroots leaders to disseminate the message to the people to preserve our coexistence as one people one nation.”

Meanwhile, Mathew Lodu John, the Paramount Chief of Lainya County, hailed the conference saying it unites chiefs and gives them a chance to feel connected. 

Chief Lodu raised an alarm over the lack of institutions of higher learning in the regions saying most students are not able to further their studies.  

“I request that the government should come up with a policy to build branches of universities in different locations so that students can access higher learning,” he said.

Other issues raised and discussed during the conference included land issues, the management of natural resources, security and protection of traditional leaders, cross-border cattle migration and management, governance, and the role of chiefs in decision-making processes.

Source: Radio Tamazuj